> Then around 12,000 years ago, as the farming of wheat, barley, and potatoes began, extra amylase genes have been found to have become more common among people who lived in Europe and Western Asia.
The writer just put that together awkwardly. The genes became more common, then the Americas finally got their first humans from Asia. Y’know, land bridge.
Potato cultivation may have started in South America 10K ago, but it may be older than that. The earliest archaeological specimen is less than 5000 years old, and thanks to (you guessed it) the starch, they don’t survive well. Plus, when potato skins are peeled thick and tossed in the rubbish, they’ll just germinate into more potato plants.
All this assumes of course that the peopling of the Americas only happened twice — land bridge, then nothin’, then 1492.
So wha’ does it all mean? Eat more starch? I don’t think so.